1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to certain bicyclic phosphorus compounds known as prophosphatranes. More specifically it relates to the prophosphatrane compounds, their use as deprotonating agents and to methods of synthesis of these compounds.
2. Description of the State of the Prior Art
Chemists are often in need of strong proton (H+) abstracting reagents. For that purpose there are commercially available reagents which are known to be useful to abstract a proton from a wide variety of organic, organometallic, or inorganic substrates. To be an ideal proton abstractor, or in other words a very strong Lewis base, it is best if the reagent has the capability of abstracting protons from molecules reluctant to release protons and of holding the abstracted proton tightly. It is also preferred, for ease of processing in complex organic synthesis, that once the proton abstractor has done its job, that it not induce unwanted side reactions and that it be easily separable as a stable product from the remaining portion of the reactants by adding or generating a halide such as chloride as shown in Reactions 1 and 2, respectively. ##STR2##
In Reaction 1, MX could be lithium chloride, for example. There is, therefore, a continuing need for the development of new proton abstracting reagents to take the place of less effective proton abstractors currently on the market.
Proton abstractors such as those commercially available from firms such as Aldrich Chemical Company, are commonly utilized to form R.sup.- ions from RH substrates. An example of such a compound available from Aldrich Chemical Company is 1,8-(bisdimethylamino)-naphthalene, sold under the trademark PROTON SPONGE. The compounds of the present invention are considerably stronger proton abstracting agents than PROTON SPONGE i.e. they remove protons from substrates that PROTON SPONGE leaves intact.